A touch based Multi-Modal interface for teleoperation to improve usability for the non-expert

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to achieve a user friendly interface for teleoperation in versatile purpose. However, it is difficult to teleoperate a robot for general persons. In this paper, we propose a new interface to improve usability with a touch based Multi-Modal interface for teleoperation for non-expert. The operator is able to operate a robot without spatial restriction since the proposed interface is portable. In addition, the positional relationship between the teleoperation robot and the obstacles in remote areas that is a problem in teleoperation can be provided to the user intuitively by the proposed interface. To achieve such an intuitive interface, we propose a method of controlling a robot by touch. Moreover, we developed a prototype of original portable module and three vibration patterns so that the operator is able to perceive the direction of the obstacle located around the teleperated robot. The experiments were conducted to verify the performance of the direction provided by the prototype portable original module and three vibration patterns. The result of the experiment reveals that the best results marked identification rate of 86% and the user can identify five directions intuitively.